FIM Endurance World Championship/Oschersleben 8 Hours

Oschersleben, Germany

August 20, 2015

Provisional Qualifying Results (ranked by average of each rider’s best lap time):

1. Monster Energy Yamaha – YART (Max Neukirchner/Ivan Silva/Sheridan Morais), Yam YZF-R1, 1:26.989

2. SRC Kawasaki (Gregory Leblanc/Matthieu Lagrive/Fabien Foret), Kaw ZX-10R, 1:27.330

3. Suzuki Endurance Racing Team SERT (Vincent Philippe/Anthony Delhalle/Etienne Masson), Suz GSX-R1000, 1:27.664

4. GMT94 Yamaha (David Checa/Kenny Foray/Mathieu Gines), Yam YZF-R1, 1:27.726

5. BMW Motorrad France Team Penz13.com (Markus Reiterberger/Bastien Mackels/Pedro Valcaneras), BMW S1000RR, 1:27.762

6. Volpker NRT48 & Penz13 by Schubert Motors (Stephen Mercer/Marco Nekvasil/Dominik Vincon), BMW S1000RR, 1:27.865

7. Honda Racing (Julien Da Costa/Sebastien Gimbert/Freddy Foray) Hon CBR1000RR SP, 1:27.970

8. Junior Team LMS Suzuki (Baptiste Guittet/Gregg Black/Romain Maitre), Suz GSX-R1000, 1:28.383

9. Team Bolliger Switzerland (Horst Saiger/Roman Stamm/nicolas Salchaud), Kaw ZX-10R, 1:28.649

10. Macon Racing Team (Ginaluca Vizziello/Marko Jerman/Anthony Dos Santos), Yam YZF-R1, 1:28.926

More, from a press release issued by Honda Racing:

Honda Endurance Racing positive after Q1 at the Oschersleben 8 Hours

The Honda Endurance Racing team took part in encouraging free practice and first qualifying sessions at the 3.667km Oschersleben circuit in Germany.

Honda’s endurance specialists Julien Da Costa, Freddy Foray and Sébastien Gimbert are taking part in the third and penultimate Endurance World Championship round in which the squad qualified on provisional seventh place on-board the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP with an average lap time of 1’27.970.

The first rider to get out on track was Da Costa who got the seventh best time in 1’27.966. Then Gimbert made his best lap time in 1’27.868 and finished fifth in his session. Finally Foray who crashed out, unhurt, finished in fifth position with a best lap time of 1’28.076.

The Honda Endurance Racing team finished seventh out of 36 teams. The team worked on the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP’s set-up to get prepared for the race and the crew is taking positive from today’s results. The second qualifying sessions will start at 15:10 (GMT+1) on Friday 21 August and will be followed by the pit walk at 19:30.

For all the latest news on the team in real time follow @HondaRacingCBR on Twitter.

Julien Da Costa

We do not have the same feeling as last year on the bike, but in spite of this we improved the CBR’s performances session after session. We would like to be more at the front so we still have to work hard because our aim here is to appear as the favourite. We’ll continue to work on the bike and then things will get better for tomorrow.

Freddy Foray

Regarding the race-pace this result is quite good, we are consistent in our lap times, but something is still missing. I made a slight mistake and crashed out during my qualifying session, I am sorry for the team – now I hope that tomorrow we’ll find a good solution to get ready for the race.

Sébastien Gimbert

We worked a lot on the bike’s set-up today, we still have a few chattering issues, so I think that we are able to be much faster. When I was on track there was a lot of traffic, but I think that tomorrow we’ll feel more comfortable and we’ll be able to let go a little bit more. I am happy that Freddy walked out uninjured after his crash, now let’s hope that tomorrow we’ll get a bigger smile on our faces.

More, from a press release issued by BMW Motorrad France Team Penz13.com:

BMW Motorrad France Team Penz13.com on provisional fifth for Oschersleben grid

Oschersleben, Germany. BMW Motorrad France Team Penz13.com has scored the provisional fifth starting place for Saturday’s 8 hours of Germany, third round to the 2015 FIM Endurance World Championship. Riders Markus Reiterberger (GER), Bastien Mackels (BEL) and Pedro Vallcaneras (ESP) powered their BMW S 1000 RR to a average fastest lap time of 1:27.762. Reiterberger posted the fastest time of the day in 1:26,386 Minutes.

The Germany based BMW Motorrad France Team Penz13.com squad also secured the top spot for the first free practice this morning. Reiterberger was the only rider by then to lap under 1:27 Minutes, placing the squad 1.134 seconds clear ahead of the rest of the field.

Whilst yesterday’s test sessions and today’s free practice was held under cloudy skies and with slightly cooler temperatures the sun came out for the qualifying sessions this afternoon.

Reiterberger was the first rider to start his assault on a fast time ending up in posting the overall fastest time of the day in 1:26,386 Minutes – and placed himself on P1 of the group of the first riders.

Second one on track was Mackels who ended up missing the 27s shortly by posting a time of 1:28,070, showing re-grouped confidence and optimism to get the next bracket broken in tomorrows second session.

Also Spanish rider Vallcaneras showed himself on form for the Qualifying and lapped the etropolis Motorsport Arena Oschersleben circuit in 1:28,832.

The team’s average time was a 1:27,762 and fifth place for the provisional grid. First six teams of today’s Qualifying were separated by one second in the average result, only four riders managed times in the 1:26 Minute barrier.

Markus Reiterberger

Rider

“We had a decent start to the German Speedweek today. Setup wise we found a good solution for our suspension and also the electronics is already on a very good level. I put in the fastest lap of the day so for sure I can be satisfied but hope to further improve tomorrow.”

Bastien Mackels

Rider

“It’s been a good day for us and I am just a little bit disappointed I didn’t manage a 1:27 today. But there is more to come tomorrow and I think we all have room for improvement and can get a stronger position after Qualifying 2.”

Pedro Vallcaneras

Rider

“I am satisfied today. I almost reached my best lap time from last year and I think I can go faster tomorrow. It was a pity I lost the first minutes of my session due to some issues we had to solve but with a couple of more laps in tomorrow I think I can go faster another time.”

Rico Penzkofer

Team Principal

“So far, so good. We had some minor issues with the rear quick change system today which we could solve quickly but costing some time during the free practice and the qualifying sessions of Markus and Pedro. We haven’t had such a problem ever before so we need to find out what happened there. But on the other hand – if those will be it with problems for this weekend, then we take it. It is a pity but it happened in the practices so we still have time to make some adjustments for the race on Saturday where we hope to have no issues.”